Thrive Architect Review From A Real User With Special Bonuses

Thrive Architect Review: Is It The Best Page Tool For WordPress?

Thrive Topics is one of my favourite software marketing companies out there now. They produce products that I actually use, and them improve and update .

My first introduction to Thrive came a few years back when they launched an page builder called Thrive Content Builder. It was published, there was nothing like it. Could you use it to build landing pages that are converting, but it was great for spicing up your post content with eye catching visual elements.

The ability to add elements like table of countdown timers lists, buttons, contents and custom widgets allowed you to make your content stand out. I still use it today on some of my articles like my post on the email providers that are best.

All software products start showing their age and the same thing happened to Thrive Content Builder. While still a good product, it started being surpassed by flashier competitors concerning innovation and ease of use.

That is why I was so excited when the of Thrive Architect was announced in the beginning of this month. Of the preview videos were consumed by me since they were published and I was so happy that my Thrive Content Builder plugin ready to upgrade to the newest version.

In this Thrive Architect review, I will have a look at all the enhancements of the plugin, and provide you an comprehensive look at how it works.

What is Thrive Architect?

You might have some confusion about what Thrive Architect is if you haven’t been following closely to the previews then.

However, it’s not just some polish over the existing plugin. It is a complete rework of the product with workflow and a UI.

Yet Thrive Architect is backward compatible with your TCB generated content. So when you do the upgrade, your old content will all appear completely the same. This was very important to me, and gave me peace of mind when performing the upgrade on this site.

You also get all the same widgets that TCB was famous for such as countdown timers, testimonials, lead generation forms and lots of others. Plus it gives you the ability to create various layouts the default WordPress editor just can not do.

As a WordPress plugin, it gives you the flexibility to do many things on your site

Not only that, but Thrive Architect is also the visual editor which powered Thrive products that are other such as Thrive Quiz Builder and Thrive Leads that I am also using on this site.

So it will improve the experience you have with these products.

What are a few of the best features of Thrive Architect?

There’s a definite learning curve to being productive with Thrive Architect, but I am very satisfied with how flexible and powerful it is. After playing it, I am quite confident you can design any sort of landing or homepage page you want with it.

Here are a few of the things I like about the item.

Wonderful Feature #1: Easy to modify properties

The dedicated sidebar is much nicer to work with than the old TCB floating toolbar.

I truly appreciate the thought that went into designing its UI as there are tons of little and big improvements.

I like the way to be exact by inputting specific inputs or using the sliders to quickly tweak values.
You can enter values, click the arrows and also just drag to quickly adjust your padding and margins. It all works pretty well.

Nice Feature #2: Better responsive pages.

While TCB was mobile responsive, Thrive Architect takes this to a whole new level.

You can now separately edit your pages for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices, so that your page will appear just how you want it on each screen size.

At the bottom of the sidebar, there’s an icon called Responsive View that lets you change between Desktop, Tablet, and cellular views.

It is a bit tricky to explain but basically changes to each perspective’s fashions cascade downward where Desktop > Tablet > Mobile.

Changes in the Desktop view will apply to all 3 views while alterations to Tablet will affect Tablet and Mobile views. And finally, changes to Mobile will only affect Mobile. Phew!

Take my Leadpages demo page. But on tablet I wanted them to stack on top of each other vertically.

To execute this, I switched over to Tablet view and adjusted the layout of the buttons . This change then automatically propagated down to the cellular view also.

You also have the ability to show or hide various elements in the 3 viewpoints. So if a specific picture is too big for mobile screens you can just hide it from this view. This is available under the’Responsive’ section in each element’s properties.

By taking the time to try it, you can now make your pages look great at all screen resolutions.

Nice Feature #3: Breadcrumb navigation to pick elements.

Thrive Architect lets you select elements on the page just by clicking on them.

But when elements are nested inside of each other, picking out the particular thing you need becomes a little trickier.

TA solves this issue by introducing a breadcrumb navigation menu at the top of the screen. It shows all the elements in the selected item’s hierarchy so you can easily choose the one you want to edit.

Nice Feature #4: No content lock-in.

One of the main concerns people have with having a page builder is they fear they’ll be locked into the product forever. I believe this was the main issue that we had with using Thrive Content Builder.

Luckily, Thrive Architect made this a priority and has addressed this concern.

If there ever comes a day where you want to uninstall Thrive Architect, all your content and graphics remain.

I’m also pleased to report you could disable TA at the post or page level as well. Let’s say you have used it to enhance a particular blog post.

Clicking it will let you edit your content using the WordPress editor. You will lose all of your TA that is special formatting of course, but your content remains that’s the part that is important.

Thrive Architect is a completely new solution, so there were a few annoyances that I discovered along the way as well. Here are a few things I think could use some improvement.

Improvement #1: Changing fonts requires too many clicks.

Setting my fonts for elements is among the most common things I was doing while designing my page.

The problem is that it may take up to 4 clicks to pick the font you need for any specific element.

Then pick your origin, choose your font, then press on the’Apply’ button. It gets a little tedious after doing so over and over.

It would be nice if Thrive Architect have the ability to apply it and just could recall.

Improvement #2: Sidebar ends up becoming cluttered over time

Default, the element properties in the sidebar grouped into sections which are hidden away with accordion style menus.

But when you start opening a few of the segments, it becomes harder to discover the properties you want because the segments remain open until you close them . You have to do a lot more scrolling that can become bothersome.

It would be fine if TA added a button that would automatically collapse the open sections.

Improvement #3: Nevertheless some overall bugginess.

I did notice some bugs that are sporadic, as I worked on the design of my webpage. Occasionally when I picked an element the choice highlight didn’t appear. I also notice that if I select fonts that are certain , sometimes it will not fill in the default values right.

These were just annoyances that are small and none of these are deal breakers. As a new solution, bugs should be expected and I’m confident that these issues will be fixed by the Thrive development team very quickly.

Thrive Architect Pricing

The model is followed by thrive Architect to its products. You pay a one time fee, with the cost increasing based on the amount of site licenses you want. So in the event of Thrive Architect, it’s $97 for a 5 license package, $67 for a single site license, and $147 for a 15 license package.

With this one-time fee you get lifetime updates, access to all of the plugin’s features and 1 year of support.

Or, if you’re a Thrive Themes member, you get access to Thrive Architect free with your yearly membership. This is what I have.

At launch, there were some limited Thrive Architect discounts given out to choose affiliates. However, you won’t find any coupons for Thrive products.

Final Thoughts

If you’re a Thrive Content Builder user, then Thrive Architect is a massive update that I am positive you will love. The UI improvements are amazing, and I think it’s far better than TCB whatsoever. Plus it enhances your experience working such as Thrive Leads and Thrive Quiz Builder with other Thrive products.

And this is only the start. The Thrive team is very responsive to feedback, and what we’re seeing today with Thrive Architect is just the beginning. Over time, the product will continue to improve and get better and better.

So if you’re looking to design a new homepage or simply need to create blog posts, why not give Thrive Architect a try?